Arrival

Step 1- Arrival

Upon arrival at one of our seven practices in Teesside, County Durham, Tyneside and Northumberland, you will be greeted by a member of our support team. They will then run through a brief questionnaire so we tailor the eye examination to meet your specific needs

If you arrive early, we have a comfortable waiting area for you to use whilst you wait. We also offer all of our customers the option of having a hot or cold drink whilst they wait.

When the Optometrist is ready to see you they will come and collect you from the waiting area.

The front desk of our Durham Practice

Step 2 - Patient Questionnaire

One of our optical assistants will guide you through our patient questionnaire. This allows the Optometrist an insight into your lifestyle and what is important to you in your eye examination. It will also identify how you use your vision which will help us to recommend what correction is most suited to your needs.

Step 3 - Medical Examination

You will then be introduced to our Optometrist (Optician) who will perform a medical examination of your eyes in order to assess their health. This will take around ten minutes and include the following:

Slit Lamp Examination – this is a tool, like a microscope, used by our Optometrist to examine the front parts of your eyes, such as lids and cornea, in great detail

Fundoscopy – using a small piece of equipment known as an ophthalmoscope (like a magnifying glass with a light), our Optometrist will examine the back of your eyes to assess their overall health.

Before the Optician begins the examination, they will guide you through what is going to happen over the next 20 minutes.

Step 4 - Visual Assessment

After checking the health of your eyes, our Optometrist will now perform a series of tests to check your vision and find the prescription of your eyes. This is done using the following:

Distance vision chart – this involves reading a specific line of letters to determine how good your long vision is.

Retnoscope – this will allow our Optometrist to get a rough idea of what your prescription is.

Reading chart – this involves reading passages from a book to determine how good your reading vision is.

This piece of equipment is the main component of the visual assessment and allows our Optometrist to present you with different lenses in order to determine the best prescription for you.

After checking the health and vision, our Optometrist may choose to perform further tests, such as a visual field test which shows lights in your peripheral vision and maps your responses to a chart, and a test to measure the pressures in your eye, which is now done without the need for the dreaded puff of air!

Step 5 - The Results

Having carried out the examination our Optometrist will discuss the results with you. If there are no problems with your eyes, we will see you again in two years for your next text. If there is an issue with our vision it will most likely because you have become short-sighted, i.e. you have a problem with your distance vision, or are long-sighted, i.e. you need support with your reading vision.

Our team will discuss the various options with you, whether that involves wearing spectacles or contact lenses, or perhaps having laser eye surgery if you wish.

In the unlikely event a more serious problem is detected, you can rest assured that we provide the best level of screening, detection, counselling and treatment.

This a visual fields screener. It works by showing lights in your peripheral vision and mapping your responses to a chart. By doing this the Optometrist can assess any defects in your visual field which could be caused by diseases such as glaucoma, or even detect brain tumours.

This is an I-care tonometer. It is a much more modern version of the traditional 'Puff of air' tests that people hate so much. It has been designed to measure the pressures in your eyes without you feeling a thing.

Did you know?

"If you could buy a camera with the same resolution as your eye it would take over 50 days to load an image on your computer!"

"The first pair of spectacles were made in 1284, however magnifying glasses were used to aid reading in 3000BC!"

"There are over 8000 registered Optometrists in the UK - only 42 of them practice Vision Training!"

"87% of all learning goes in through the vision system. The remainder is from your other senses. That's why you need to make sure your eyes are constantly healthy."

"The entire volume of your body's blood passes through the eye every 1 hour 20 minutes."

"Over 60% of your brain is constantly decoding vision information. Dyslexics and Dyspraxic sufferers sometimes need assistance in optimising the decoding process. Wade Opticians are north east experts in this field."

"Did you know you can now be fitted with lenses to wear overnight that remould your eye surface to correct vision problems. Ask about our Ortho K treatment."